APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF WORD MEANING

1) DECOMPOSITIONAL (COMPONENTIAL)
2) GESTALTISTIC (SCHEMATIC, HOLISTIC)
3) RELATIONAL (PARADIGMATIC AND SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS)

1. COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS is a descriptive model of semantic content. The underlying assumption is that
the meaning of a lexeme can be described by means of a restricted set of meaningful components (building
blocks).
SEMANTIC COMPONENTS are theoretical elements (metalanguage), not elements of vocabulary. Semantic
components are shared across the lexicon and they combine in different ways to form the meaning of individual
words. Every lexeme is a unique bundle of semantic components (features).
Nida (1975): In order to analyse any referential meaning one must identify those necessary and sufficient
features that distinguish the meaning of any one form from every other form which might compete for a place
in the same semantic territory.
TYPES OF SEMANTIC COMPONENTS
1) SEMANTIC MARKERS (COMMON COMPONENTS, CLASSIFIERS, CLASSEMES)
2) SEMANTIC DISTINGUISHERS (DIAGNOSTIC COMPONENTS, DISTINCTIVE FEATURES)
3) SUPPLEMENTARY COMPONENTS - CHARACTERISTIC, BUT NOT DISTINCTIVE
SPECIFICATION OF COMPONENTS (STRIVING FOR ECONOMY)
1) BINARY FEATURES - THE PRESENCE/ABSENCE OF A SEMANTIC COMPONENT +/2) REDUNDANCY RULES (HUMAN > ANIMATE, ANIMAL > ANIMATE, ANIMATE > CONCRETE)
DIFFERENT WORD CLASSES AND SEMANTIC COMPONENTS
1) NOUNS (CONCRETE/ABSTRACT, ANIMATE/INANIMATE, NATURAL/MAN-MADE, MALE/
FEMALE)
2) VERBS (ACTION, CAUSE, STATE, BECOME, MOTION, CONTACT, CHANGE OF STATE, TOOL
USE)
3) PREPOSITIONS (LOCATION, CONTIGUITY/SEPARATION, BOUNDARY, SURFACE)
SEMANTIC TESTS FOR DETERMINING THE SEMANTIC COMPONENTS
(THE SEMES OF A DEFINITION)
1) SOtest & BUTtest
2) HYPONYMY/ENTAILMENT (X and other Ys) dolls and other toys; cars and other vehicles
3) SEMANTIC ANOMALY TESTS
1) PLEONASM The bouquet consists of flowers.
2) PARADOX The bachelor is a woman.
3) ZEUGMA (for different senses) Tom followed the road and the fox.
4) COLLOCATIONS (for a collocation to be acceptable, collocates must share a semantic component)
SEMANTIC DEFINITION OF LEXICAL ITEMS - Nida (1975): A highly specialised form of paraphrase
based on the distinctive components of the particular meaning in question. A semantic definition includes
necessary and sufficient features and it has clear boundaries.
cotton <soft substance|| which is white and hair-like, used to make cloth>

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

Manfred Bierwisch: The aim of componential analysis is to reduce the enormous diversity of meanings in
language to a manageable limited list of very basic and general features, such that the meaning of each and
every word could be assembled out of several features from that list. All semantic structure might finally be
reduced to components representing the basic dispositions of the cognitive and perceptual structure of the
human organism.
THE SHORTCOMINGS OF COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
Metalanguage used in componential analysis is not clearly developed. Componential analysis is limited in focus
and mechanical in style (Markerese) and is fully applicable only to certain segments of vocabulary (e.g.
kingship items, animal livestock). It also fails to capture important aspects of encyclopaedic meaning. There
is also the issue of identification and definition of semantic components

2. NATURAL SEMANTIC METALANGUAGE

NATURAL SEMANTIC METALANGUAGE is a metalanguage derived exclusively from natural language.
It is a method of semantic analysis which breaks concepts/words down into combinations of simpler
concepts/words using a small collection of semantic primes. It is based on REDUCTIVE PARAPHRASE.
SEMANTIC PRIMES (PRIMITIVES, ATOMS) are the simplest semantic elements that cannot be further
reduced, cannot be defined in a non-circular fashion. They are intuitively clear and self- explanatory. They
are definite/limited in number and they combine to give all other, complex concepts. They are semantic
fundamentals lexicalised/shared across languages, and Leibniz referred to them as the alphabet of human
thought. They are words/concepts essential for explicating the meanings of numerous other words and
grammatical constructions. They cannot themselves be explicated in a non-circular fashion, i.e. their meanings
are conceptually simple.
PROPOSED SEMANTIC PRIMES (65)
1) SUBSTANTIVES: SOMEONE (PERSON), SOMETHING (THING), I, YOU, BODY
2) RELATIONAL SUBSTANTIVES: KIND, PART
3) DETERMINERS: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER
4) QUANTIFIERS: ONE, TWO, MUCH/MANY, SOME, ALL
5) EVALUATORS: GOOD, BAD
6) DESCRIPTORS: BIG, SMALL
7) MENTAL PREDICATES: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR
8) SPEECH: SAY, WORD, TRUE
9) ACTIONS, EVENTS, MOVEMENT, CONTACT: DO, HAPPEN, MOVE, TOUCH
10) LOCATION, EXISTENCE, POSSESSION, SPECIFICATION: BE SOMEWHERE, THERE IS/EXIST,
HAVE, BE SOMEONE/SOMETHING
11) LIFE AND DEATH: LIVE, DIE
12) TIME: WHEN/TIME, NOW, BEFORE, AFTER
13) PLACE: WHERE/PLACE, HERE, ABOVE, BELOW, FAR, NEAR, SIDE, INSIDE
14) LOGICAL CONCEPTS: NOT, MAYBE, CAN, BECAUSE, IF
15) INTENSIFICATION: VERY
16) SIMILARITY: LIKE
MORPHOSYNTACTIC PROPERTIES OF SEMANTIC PRIMES ACROSS LANGUAGES
An exponent of a semantic prime may be a word, a bound morpheme, a phraseas long as it expresses the
required meaning. Morphologically complex words and phrases have a unitary meaning.

SEMANTIC EXPLICATION (REDUCTIVE PARAPHRASE)

A simple NSM clause a predicate (e.g. HAPPEN, DO, SAY, WANT) + one or more substantive phrases
(arguments) whose nature is constrained by the identity of the predicate.
MINIMAL AND EXTENDED FRAMES (VALENCY OPTIONS)
1)
2)
3)
4)

MINIMAL FRAME someone DOES something

PATIENT FRAMES someone DOES something to someone else/something
INSTRUMENT FRAME someone DOES something with something
COMITATIVE FRAME someone DOES something with someone

SEMANTIC MOLECULES is a packet of semantic components which exist as the meaning of a lexical unit.
Not all concepts can be explicated directly in terms of semantic primes, therefore an intermediate level of
semantic explication is required.
SEMANTIC MOLECULES INCLUDE:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

BODY PARTS: hand, mouth

LIFE FORMS: animal, bird, fish, tree
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT: ground, sun, sky, water
MATERIALS: wood, glass, paper
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTORS: long, round, sharp
PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES: eat, drink, sit
EXPRESSIVE/COMMUNICATIVE ACTIONS: laugh, sing, write
BASIC SOCIAL CATEGORIES: man, woman, child, mother, father

SEMANTIC TEMPLATE is a structured set of component types shared by words of a particular semantic
class.
CULTURAL SCRIPTS are used for spelling out cultural norms, values and practices in terms of NSM. They
are reflected in the lexicon and grammar of a language.

3. PROTOTYPE-BASED APPROACH TO SEMANTIC STRUCTURE

This approach was first introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein. William Labov explained that the prototypebased approach takes the stand that there are fuzzy boundaries between words and their meanings as there is no
set of necessary and sufficient features, but there are typical attributes (perceptual, functional, interactional),
which vary depending on the situational context.
Instead of the meaning of a linguistic form being represented in terms of a checklist of conditions that have to
be satisfied on order for the form to be appropriately or truthfully used, it is held that the understand of meaning
requires, at least for a great many cases, an appeal to an exemplar or prototype. Charles Fillmore (1975)
CATEGORISATION (PROTOTYPE APPROACH)
Categorisation is one of the basic cognitive processes and it comprises concept formation and organisation.
Categories are internally structured, and category membership is a matter of degree. Members of a category do
not have equal status, and categories have fuzzy boundaries. A prototype is a cognitive reference point (clearest
case). In prototype theory some members of a category are better examples of that category and therefore are
considered prototypical, whereas other members are poorer examples of that category.
LINGUSTIC MEANS FOR EXPRESSING (NON-)PROTOTYPICALITY
1) HEDGES - par excellence, sort of, kind of, basically, as it were, in one sense, in a manner of speaking,
strictly/loosely speaking, in that

2) REDUPLICATION You make the fruit salad, and Ill make the salad-salad.

4. SEMANTIC FRAMES
Charles Fillmore (1975) came up with the idea of using an alternative to checklist theories of meaning
comprising the Prototype and the Frame the Frame being background conceptual knowledge of a word.
A semantic frame is any system of concepts and terms that are related in such a way that in order to understand
any one of them it is necessary to understand the entire system. A lexical unit evokes a frame and profiles some
aspect of that frame. The semantic content of a word is characterised in relation to the frame it evokes (the
background encyclopaedic knowledge needed for the understanding of that word). N.B. The same lexical unit
can evoke different frames.
COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION FRAME comprises its frame elements (SELLER, BUYER, GOODS,
MONEY) + the relations between them.
FrameNet
There are many established semantic frames which are stored in the electronic lexical database based on them,
called FrameNet. Since 1997 it has been a work in progress. FrameNet includes over 900 frames, over 11,000
lexical units, and over 170,00 annotated sentences. It is both human and machine readable, and it is a unique
dictionary with annotated examples that show meaning, usage and syntactic behaviour. It is a useful research
tool for linguistics, natural language processingThe FrameNet Project comprises different languages.

5. PARADIGMATIC SENSE RELATIONS

RELATIONAL APPROACH TO LEXICAL MEANING
Lyons (1977): The meaning of a linguistic unit is defined to be the set of relations that the unit in question
contracts with other units of the language, without any attempt being made to set up contents for these units.
What is the sense of X?
a set of questions:
Does sense-relation R hold between X and Y?
TYPES OF SENSE RELATIONS
1) PARADIGMATIC (SELECTION)
a. RELATIONS OF IDENTITY & INCLUSION
car : automobile
car : vehicle
car : wheel
b. RELATIONS OF OPPOSITENESS & EXCLUSION
fast : slow
male : female
tie : untie
dog : cat
2) SYNTAGMATIC (COMBINATION)
3) DERIVATIONAL (WORD FAMILIES)
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database of English based on paradigmatic sense relations and it was established in 1985 at
Princeton University. In WordNet, senses are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets, of which there
are 117,000), each expressing a distinct concept. The key relation is synonymy (shut-close, car-automobile).
Synsets are interlinked via paradigmatic sense relations (SYNONYMY, HYPONYMY, TROPONYMY,
MERONYMY, ENTAILMENT, ANTONYMY).

6. PARADIGMATIC SENSE RELATIONS OF IDENTITY & INCLUSION

SYNONYMY
DEGREES OF SYNONYMY
1) ABSOLUTE (COMPLETE) SYNONYMS - epinephrine : adrenalin
a. All their meanings are identical
b. They are interchangeable in all contexts and
c. Identical in both descriptive and non-descriptive meaning.
2) PARTIAL (INCOMPLETE) SYNONYMS
a. Some of their meanings are identical.
b. Interchangeable in some contexts.
c. Identical in descriptive but different in non-descriptive meaning.
COGNITIVE (PROPOSITIONAL) SYNONYMS are interchangeable without affects truth-conditions of a
given proposition (mutual entailment).
John is tuning his violin/fiddle.
John broke/fractures his shin.
TESTS FOR COGNITIVE SYNONYMY
1) TRUTH PRESERVING INTERCHANGEABILITY (MUTUAL ENTAILMENT)
John closed the door John shut the door.
2) AND-test & BUT-test
John closed and shut the door.
John closed the door, but he did not shut it.
COGNITIVE SYNONYMY VS. NEAR-SYNONYMY (PLESIONYMY) - As opposed to cognitive
synonyms, plesionyms do affect truth conditions of a given proposition. There is no mutual entailment. The
propositions have different entailments and therefore have different truth values.
John is thrifty. John is stingy.
HYPONYMY (A KIND/TYPE OF)
HYPONYM (SUBORDINATE TERM) contains the semantic components of the HYPERNYM
(SUPERORDINATE TERM) + additional components.
dog : animal
apple : fruit
REDUNDANCY RULES (OBLIGATORY HYPERNYMS)
HUMAN > ANIMATE, UTENSIL > ARTEFACT
TESTS FOR HYPONYMY
1) X AND OTHER Ys
tulips and other flowers

*flowers and other tulips

2) ALL Ys EXCEPT X
She likes all flowers except tulips.
*She likes all tulips except flowers.
3) EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN A HYPONYM (X) AND A SYNTAGMATICALLY MODIFIED
HYPERNYM (Y)
queen : female monarch
LEVELS OF CATEGORISATION
1) BASIC-LEVEL TERMS are typically short, morphologically simple, native and are known to most
speakers. They are frequently used and they hold primacy in language development and language
acquisition.
spoon
2) SUPERORDINATE TERMS are frequently modified, or are compounds. They may require extra
knowledge in a certain field (e.g. cheddar, stilton)
teaspoon
3) SUBORDINATE TERMS are frequently learned, foreign words. They may require extra knowledge in a
certain field and may be missing altogether (lexical gaps)
implement
TAXONOMY
Taxonomy is the identifying and naming of species, and arranging them into hierarchically structured
classifications. A taxonym is necessarily a hyponym, but a hyponym is not necessarily a taxonym.
TROPONYMY (A MANNER OF) is hyponymy in verbs.
stroll : walk
chuckle : laugh
jog : run
MERONYMY (A PART OF)
MERONYM (PARTONYM) is a term denoting a part of a HOLONYM (term denoting a whole).
finger : hands
wall : room
branch : tree
MERONYMY (PARTONYMY) TESTS
1) X IS A PART OF Y - A finger is a part of hand.
2) Y HAS X A hand has fingers.
3) X IS A PRT OF Y & Y HAS X A keyboard is a part of a piano and a piano has a keyboard.
MERONYMY can be either CANONICAL or OPTINAL (FACULTATIVE)

head : body
medical school : university
VARITIES OF MERONYMIC RELATIONS
1) COLLECTIVE HOLONYMS
a. GROUP (HUMAN) MEMBER family, tribe, team, committee, orchestra, jury, senate
b. CLASS (SOCIAL) MEMBER clergy, aristocracy, proletariat
c. COLLECTION MEMBER forest, wardrobe, library
d. ANIMAL GROUP MEMBER herd, pack, school, shoal, flock, colony
2) OBJECT MATERIAL bottle : glass, breadboard : wood, book : paper
3) SUBSTANCE INGREDIENTS water : oxygen & hydrogen, bronze : copper/tin, pastry : flour/yeast
4) SUBSTANCE PARTICLE sand : grain, snow : flake, rain : drop, cloth : fibre

7. PARADIGMATIC SENSE RELATIONS OF OPPOSITENESS AND EXCLUSION

TYPES OF LEXICAL OPPOSITES
1) ANTONYMS PROPER (GRADABLE/CONTRARY OPPOSITES)
a. POLAR high : low, fast: slow, deep: shallow
b. EQUIPOLLENT happy : sad, bitter : sweet
2) COMPLEMENTARY OPPOSITES male : female, dead : alive, stationary : moving
They are mutually exclusive binary oppositeness in its purest form. There is a strict logical definition: X
entails and is entailed by NOT-Y
3) DIRECTIONAL OPPOSITES
a. ANTIPODALS (Opposite extremes) top : bottom, cellar : attic, source : mouth
b. REVERSIVES (Movement/change in opposite directions) rise : fall, come : go, advance : retreat,
tie : untie, dress : undress, do : undo
4) RELATIONAL OPPOSITES husband : wife, doctor : patient, own : belong
a. CONVERSES (They describe the same arrangement) buy : sell
CONTRONYMS (JANUS WORDS) are single words having opposite senses.
cleave
He cleft the rock and the water gushed out.
Their feet no longer cleave to the ground.
OPPOSITENESS & MARKEDNESS
MARKEDNESS is an asymmetry relationship (form/meaning). There are unmarked and marked terms.
UNMARKED terms are neutral, more general and the default terms. MARKED terms are more specific and
they presuppose certain semantic features.
How old/*young is Mike?

8. PARADIGMATIC SENSE RELATIONS AND LEXICAL FIELDS

Trier: A semantic field denotes a segment of reality symbolised by a set of related words. The words in a
semantic fields share a common semantic property.
pond, lake, ditch, swamp, pool, sea, ocean
creek, river, stream, brook, rivulet, tributary

LEXICAL CHAINS
1) BIPOLAR CHAINS
beautiful pretty plain ugly
spotless clean dirty filthy
minute tiny small large huge enormous
adore love like dislike hate abhor
2) MONOPOLAR CHAINS
a. DEGREES
fail pass distinction
mound hillock hill mountain
b. STAGES
primary secondary tertiary
egg larva pupa butterfly
c. MEASURES
inch foot yard mile
ounce pound tonne
d. RANKS
private corporal sergeant
e. SEQUENCES
morning afternoon evening

9. POLYSEMY. METAPHOR. METONYMY

POLYSEMY
POLYSEMY is the notion of a single lexeme having multiple related senses.
LEXICAL AMBIGUITY (Single form, distinct meanings)

HOMONYMY (Unrelated meanings, distinct lexemes, same form) Near the bank.
POLYSEMY John is cold.

VAGUENESS (Single form, single but nonspecific meaning) - my childs birthday

POLYSEMY TESTS
1) PARADIGMATIC SENSE RELATIONS
old : new/young
thin : thick/fat
man : animal/woman/boy
2) ZEUGMA
John and his driving licence expired last week.
The building and the unemployment are high.
KEY MECHANISMS OF SEMANTIC EXTENSION (METAPHOR & METONYMY)
They are traditionally tropes, figures of speech.
John is a lion.
METAPHOR (SIMILARITY)
The pen is mightier than the sword. METONYMY (CONTIGUITY)

I.A. RICHARDS REGARDING METAPHOR

VEHICLE = the item used metaphorically (head in head of state)

TENOR = the metaphorical meaning of the vehicle (chief/president)
GROUND = the basis for the metaphorical extension (the common elements of meaning: STATE
PERSON)

CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR THEORY deals with cross-domain mapping and understanding a target
domain (abstract) in terms of a source domain (concrete).
Today is a big day. IMPORTANCE IS SIZE

SOURCE DOMAIN = experientially closer domain of experience

TARGET DOMAIN = abstract domain of experience, understood in terms of the source domain

CONVENTIONAL FORMULA = TARGET DOMAIN IS SOURCE DOMAIN (Argument is war)

CONCEPTUAL METONYMY deals with within-domain mapping and understanding a target concept in
terms of a source concept within the same domain.
Have you read Proust? AUTHOR FOR HIS WORK
METONYMYC PATTERNS OF SEMANTIC EXTENSION (A STANDS FOR B)
1) PART FOR WHOLE - I noticed several new faces here.
2) WHOLE FOR PART- I am going to fill up the car.
3) THE AUTHOR FOR THEIR WORK He likes to read Shakespeare.
4) THE PRODUCER FOR THE PRODUCT Ill have Tuborg.
5) EPONYMS Kalashnikov, wellingtons
6) THE CONTROLLER FOR THE CONTROLLED Bush bombed Iraq.
7) THE POSSESSER FOR THE POSSESSED I am parked behind the theatre.
8) THE CONTAINER FOR THE CONTAINED She drank a glass or two.
9) THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION Washington is negotiating with Moscow.
10) THE INSTITUTIONS FOR THE PERSON/PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE The Senate thinks abortion is
immoral.
11) THE OBJECT USED FOR THE USER The trumped has the flu today.
12) THE PLACE OF AN EVENT FOR THE EVENT Another Pearl Harbour would be a disaster.
13) THE TIME OF AN EVENT FOR THE EVENT September 11 changed the world.
REGULAR POLYSEMY
1)
2)
3)
4)

CONTAINER (VESSEL/DISH) FOR THE CONTENT bottle, place, cup, bucket

BUILDING FOR THE INSTITUTION school, university, parliament
SIZE FOR THE IMPORTANCE big, huge, small
TEMPERATURE FOR THE DISPOSITION warm, cold

10. SYNTAGMATIC SENSE RELATIONS

1) SEMANTIC AFFINITY
a. PHILONYMY drink milk, skimmed milk, old aunt
2) SEMANTIC ANOMALY
a. XENONYMY
b. TAUTONYMY

XENONYMY (SEMANTIC CLASH)

1) INAPPROPRIATNESS Curable because you can replace a xenonym with a cognitive synonym
The daffodils passed away. Their matrimony sucks.
2) PARADOX Curable because you can replace a xenonym with an incompatible co-hyponym or a
hypernym
drink bread, male aunt, a barking cat
3) INCOGRUITY Incurable
syntactic milk, lustful affixes, purple gestures
TAUTONOMY(SEMANTIC REDUNDANCY PLEONASM)
Curable because you can replace a tautonym with a hyponym or a hypernym.
male uncle, Jack kicked the ball with his foot
TAUTONYMY OR PHILONYMS (AND-test)
big and large, wide and broad = TAUTONOMY
safe and sound, first and foremost = PHILONYMY
PHILONYMY
1) FREE COMBINATIONS red shirt, white dress
2) COLLOCATIONS
a. FIXED (BOUND) shrug ones shoulders, a pride of lions, to and fro
b. STRONG auburn eyes, deliriously happy
c. WEAK a broad avenue/smile/accent, strong men/competition/tea
A collocation is a combination of two (or more) lexemes that co-occur more often than would be expected by
chance.
TYPES OF COLLOCATIONS
1) LEXICAL COLLOCATION (content word + content word)
deliriously happy
2) GRAMMATICAL COLLOCATION (content word + function word/esp. Prep/particular form of V, etc.)
depend on/*from
enjoy cooking/*to cook
COLLIGATION is the co-occurrence of grammatical choices.
Show true feelings.

11. SEMANTIC PHENOMENA RELATED TO WORD CLASSES

THE SEMANTICS OF NOUNS

1) SPECIFICITY > DEFINITENESS - a woman : the woman : Jennifer

2) BOUNDEDNESS > COUNTABILITY; AGREEMENT
a car : petrol
Nowadays most petrols are lead free. With a Lada you get a lot of car for your money.
3) ANIMACY & SEX > GENDER; PRONOMINAL REFERENCE, AGREEMENT
France commemorates her heroes.
The U.S.S. J.F.K.? She was launched in 1967.
TYPES OF NOUNS
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

PROPER & COMMON NOUNS Henry, London, Venus : man, city, planet
COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS car, chair, hour : petrol, furniture, time
COLLECTIVE NOUNS committee, team, herd
CONCRETE & ABSTRACT NOUNS car, chair, Henry : love, justice, freedom, happiness
AGENT NOUNS teacher, inspector, biologist, accountant, burglar

THE SEMANTICS OF ADJECTIVES

1) GRADABLE & NON-GRADABLE Mary is very clever/*very female
2) ABSOLUTE & RELATIVE a white elephant > a white animal, a small animal >?a small animal
3) ATTRIBUTIVE & PREDICATIVE the clever girl : the girl is clever, the main problem : *the problem
is main
THE SEMANTICS OF VERBS
ASPECT describes the temporal structure of a situation.
TENSE locates a situation in time.

John was writing a poem.

John wrote a poem.

CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFYING SITUATION TYPES

1) STATIVE VS. DYNAMIC - John knew Swahili : John learned Swahili
2) TELIC (ENDPOINT) VS. ATELIC (NO ENDPOINT) wrote in two hours : gazed for two hours
3) DURATIVE VS. PUNCTUAL John slept : John sneezed, John ran : John arrived
BASIC SITUATION TYPES (ASCEPTUAL CLASSES OF VERBS)
1)
2)
3)
4)

STATES (stative, durative, atelic) know, believe, love, hate, want, be, own
ACTIVITIES (dynamic, durative, atelic) run, walk, swim, talk, drive, grow
ACCOMPLISHMENTS (dynamic, durative, telic) paint a picture, build a house, grow up
ACHIEVEMENTS (dynamic, punctual, telic) start, stop, find, recognize, reach the top

SEMANTIC (THEMATIC) ROLES

1) AGENT Jack wrote a novel.
2) EXPERIENCER Jack understood the situation.
3) INSTRUMENT Jack opened the safe with a hairpin.
4) PATIENT (AFFECTED) Jack sliced the bread.
5) THEME Jack put the bread on the table.
6) RESULT Jack wrote a novel.
7) PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT - Jack said he would leave.
8) RECIPIENT Jack gave Jill a bunch of red roses.
9) BENEFICIARY Jack baked Jill a cake.
10) SOURCE Jack comes from London.
11) GOAL Jack moved to Paris.
12) PLACE Jack lives in Paris. Sweden is cold.

13) TIME Jack arrived at 5 PM. Winter is cold.